101 réponses à ce sujet

[David Gaider]

CronoDragoon wrote...
What is the general process for selecting voice actors for the characters?

For major characters, I might suggest some actors. Caroline, our Voice Director, will look to see if they're available and how much they cost. If they're a star, there's generally no audition and we'd simply cast them. Otherwise, we'd do up an audition script and send it to the actor to test out.

If we have no suggestions avilable, then the audition goes to voice agents with some direction as to the type of voice we're looking for. We'll get a bunch of auditions back and Caroline would sift through those to find the best one.

Either way, it's a matter of Caroline sitting down with myself and the Lead Designer to listen to the auditions and see if we find one we like. If not, we either try again or alter our asked-for voice description. For a PC voice or really critical character, you'll get more people wanting oversight on it (like the Project Director or what have you).

Sometimes, once a voice is in-game and we see it being used by an in-game model, we don't like it and start the process over.

That's it in a nutshell.

[Allan Schumacher]

FuxIt wrote...

Cake or death?

Death.... No wait!  Cake!  I meant cake!

[Allan Schumacher]

Favourite band and/or song?

Foo Fighters and Everlong

If you could hire any actor or actress to voice a character, who would it be?

Christopher Walken (For a gajillion inside joke reasons....)

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 08 février 2013 - 08:19 .

[Allan Schumacher]

Oh all right. Your lucky I'm Church of England.

Out of Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan, who do you think made the better James Bond?

Pierce, mostly because for me he was my "first" James Bond. Though Daniel Craig is my favourite.

Given that your current intelligence level remained exact the same, would you rather everyone in the world be suddenly made less intelligent than you (meaning you are the smartest person in the world surrounded by idiots) or that everyone be made more intelligent than you (meaning you are the dumbest person in the world and you are surrounded by geniuses)?

I'm okay being the stupid one.

Have you tried Ni no Kuni?

I have not. I have heard only good things, but I believe it's PS3 exclusive, isn't it?

[Allan Schumacher]

"Trading consoles" was super common when I was younger (read: 20 years ago).

"You have a Genesis? Want to borrow my SNES for a bit? I want to try some Phantasy Star!"

[Fiddzz]

lx_theo wrote...

Allan, you don't have a PS3? Its odd to hear a game dev not at least have all the console by this point in the gen. Maybe its a misperception on my part, but it seems like someone in a position like all of you at Bioware would want to at least have the consoles (for exclusives like Ni No Kuni), no?

Contrary to popular belief we don't roll around in beds of money, so owning every console + games is still quiet an investment.  The good news is we have a library at work where your can borrow any console or game anytime you want for as long as you like! (unless someone else is waiting for it)

I'm borrowing a PS3 today for exactly that, and journey. 

[Allan Schumacher]

lx_theo wrote...

Allan, you don't have a PS3? Its odd to hear a game dev not at least have all the console by this point in the gen. Maybe its a misperception on my part, but it seems like someone in a position like all of you at Bioware would want to at least have the consoles (for exclusives like Ni No Kuni), no?

Unfortunately not a gajillionaire haha.

I have an XBox360 that I mostly picked up just for Rock Band 2 (but have since picked up other games for).  I'm primarily a PC gamer, and have no shortage of PC games to play usually.

I recently had to buy a car so money is a bit tight, so I'm mostly just playing through my Steam backlog (I haven't played like 2/3rd of my games)

[Allan Schumacher]

My cousin would come over and we'd play Doom and Warcraft 2 over serial connection.

Until I snagged myself a 14.4k modem.

[Allan Schumacher]

A savvy, loner gunslinger. High intelligence and some decent perception, that gets very proficient with small guns and energy weapons.

Tags usually in small guns, science, and doctor/first aid.

[Allan Schumacher]

Pseudocognition wrote...

Upsettingshorts wrote...

When you think of cake every time someone uses the phrase "vertical slice" what kind of cake is it?

(if you don't think of cake you are bad and should feel bad)

[Allan Schumacher]

Fast Jimmy wrote...

What was your first car ever?

And what is your dream car? And you can't say a Dolorean.

I currently drive a Chevy Cruze (that I have owned for a couple weeks now).

Dream car would be the Ferrari F40

From what I've heard, 4 years experience in programming at least.

I would wager this would not be a requirement anymore, if it once was.

Programmers for games today more make tools so that creative people from all walks of life (not just programming) can create content.  If there's an excellent writer that cannot program, best to make it as easy for them to write for your game as possible.

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 15 février 2013 - 12:18 .

[Allan Schumacher]

No that would be stupid why would I do such a thing!?

[Mary Kirby]

MidnightsFury wrote...

I would ask how to go about becoming a writer for BioWare. I think that would be an absolute dream job.

This is the question I get asked most often. And the answer is simple: Apply.

Put together a resume and a portfolio. Include writing samples from the Neverwinter toolset, or Story Nexus, or just a document with hypertext links to show you can do branching dialogue.

Then send it in.

And if that doesn't work, revise your portfolio. Try again. Keep trying until you get in. There's no secret to it. There's no magical set of criteria you have to meet. There's no special experience required. You don't have to know anybody in particular. It's pretty much exactly the same as succeeding at any creative pursuit. Do that, and you'll be fine. Or you won't. But either way, it'll be good fodder for your writing.

[Allan Schumacher]

Fast Jimmy wrote...

I'm going to direct this one to Allan... what position do you play in basketball?

(Saw a post in the Twitter thread where you were shooting around) I'm guessing... power forward?

I reached 5'10" - 5'11" pretty quickly, which meant in Junior High I was a big player and I did play the power forward spot.  I peaked at 6'1" so in high school I became a shooting guard.

In the Rec league I play in, I mostly play "all over the place" (mostly just reacting to where my teammates are going) though I typically guard the bigger guys on the other team.  I totally had a sweet Olajuwon-esque post spin move in our most recent game though.  One dribble low to a drop step into a spin baseline for a reverse layup.  Was probably literally the nicest post move I had ever done in my life!   (If only I had the confidence to try such stuff when I was actually athletic!)

[Fiddzz]

Volus Warlord wrote...

Oh, as the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown..

Who would be the King, who would be the Jester, and what would be the crown?

The king is elvis, jester bob dylan, and the crown is the price of fame.

[Allan Schumacher]

themikefest wrote...

I asked a question on page one. Can I ask another?

Do you see the Edmonton Oilers winning the Stanley Cup again?

I hope so!

[Allan Schumacher]

TMB903 wrote...

I have a question.

Being that Dragon Age Origins is an awesome RPG itself, I'm wondering what other RPGs that the devs enjoyed playing? I've always adored the Suikoden series by Konami and I hope the DA world gets it's share of nations explored in similar ways...

My favourite ones in recent memory are Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol.  I also enjoyed The Witcher 2.  Never played Suikoden, however.  (I am primarily a PC gamer)

[Allan Schumacher]

MidnightsFury wrote...

From what I've heard, 4 years experience in programming at least.


I would wager this would not be a requirement anymore, if it once was.

Programmers for games today more make tools so that creative people from all walks of life (not just programming) can create content.  If there's an excellent writer that cannot program, best to make it as easy for them to write for your game as possible.

Gracious I hope the latter is wrong. I don't know a fig about programming and likely cannot learn but I know I can write. I would just love to know where and how to start. Thanks!

Mary Kirby wrote up a good response in this thread.  Needing to be a programmer is definitely not a requirement.

[Allan Schumacher]

Chiramu wrote...

To any dev (hopefully a gamer ), outside RPGs, what other type of games do you play?

I'm pretty open in the types of games that I play.  Some of my favourite games all time are games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2, which are great mash ups of FPS and RPG gameplays.

I'm a big strategy gamer, and can sink countless hours into games like Civilization.  I am currently enthralled (again) with War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition which has a grognard level of detail that I just soak up and enjoy (just took Lunga air base in June 1942 after a week of fierce fighting!!  About to lose Java Island though!  ).  It's funny because I would consider RPGs my genre of choice, but I have easily spent more time in strategy games than any other genre.

[Allan Schumacher]

Not really. In most of my Civ games now, I just pick a Random Civ and deal with what the game gives me.

In the past, however, I was partial to the Romans (Civ 1) and later the Germans.

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 20 février 2013 - 07:39 .

[Jos Hendriks]

Fast Jimmy wrote...

I would pose this to all of the DA devs/employees who wish to answer... what was the first game you played/owned?

Mine was Race - Spinout on the Odyssey 2.

I can't quite pinpoint the very first game I played, but I recall the first Commander Keen as one of my first experiences with games, along with Pharaoh's Revenge (my first introduction to level design at age... 5 or 6?) for PC machines so old I cannot remember what type of PC it was. Also played the first Super Mario Bros. at my neighbour's place very early on.
The formal real game that really cemented gaming as a hobby for me and my brother was Super Mario World for the SNES we got for Sinterklaas when I was 6. So many great gaming memories. 

[Brian Mills]

legbamel wrote...

Ya'll are making me feel old. My first video game was Pong on my Atari. My first computer game was Lode Runner on our Apple IIc.

My question for the devs is about the office. We hear references to the Writers' Pit but do you all sit in a big open area (cubicles?) or is there a separate Graphics Pit and QA Pit? As a follow-up, are there Nerf gun battles between the various teams?

There's a mix of office sizes in the company, and it varies over the course of development and between projects.  Right now, we have a number of large 'pit' style rooms, usually used by a single team, but there are still a number of smaller offices holding a few desks (1-6 or so, depending on the room).  

For example, when I started at BioWare, QA used to be in a single large pit, then spread out to a more embedded model, then to a few medium sized rooms, and now is likely going to be in a pit again, just due to the needs of the project, how many staff we have, and where we physically have room to put people.

[John Epler]

DomRod95 wrote...

Oh, and i'd ask the Cinematic Designers how they got on the path to become a Cinematic Designer like what they majored in in college. Also, i'd ask what exactly their job consists of. I really want to get a career in the game industry so i'd like to know.

I've got a BA with a major in English Literature and a minor in Film Studies. Honestly, for the longest time, I wanted to be a writer - I've always had a fairly good grasp of language and thought it would be an ideal fit for me. But after working with the Cinematic Design team on ME2, I realized that what I wanted wasn't necessarily to write, but to tell stories - and my current role allows me to do that.

Lately, my job has been more oriented towards coordinating with other departments to find new ways to tell story with environments and outside of the standard conversation/cutscene system - pushing as much narrative into gameplay and the player experience as we can. It's a pretty varied job, at least here - we do a lot more than cutscenes and conversations, especially nowadays.

[John Epler]

themikefest wrote...

Aside from the games you worked on with Bioware. Are there any games(past or present) that you would've liked to of been involved with?

I would have loved to be involved in development for STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl or Call of Pripyat. I think it would have been a pretty fascinating development process to be involved with.

[Allan Schumacher]

Fast Jimmy wrote...

I would pose this to all of the DA devs/employees who wish to answer... what was the first game you played/owned?

Mine was Race - Spinout on the Odyssey 2.

First game I remember playing was Lode Runner.